The Residential
by csiAngel
Summary: Rachel/Eddie. A harmless charade leads to awkwardness at the staff conference.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Residential  
Rating: T  
Summary: A harmless charade leads to awkwardness at the staff conference…  
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or premise of Waterloo Road.  
Setting: Set in an 'alternative' season 4. The events of season 4 thus far did not happen, but it's set during that school year.

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Chapter One

Rachel was still laughing when they reached the front doors of the school and stepped into the cool winter air. Eddie had been trying to convince her that the source of her amusement was not that funny since they had left her office, but to no avail. Apparently, to her, his discomfort was a laughing matter.

"Rachel, it wasn't funny. She kept asking me out. I had to tell her I was involved with someone else to get her to back off."

Still laughing Rachel told him, "Just be glad she wasn't the kind of woman who would persist in spite of that!"

"Yeah, well I'm not entirely convinced she believed me, but she seemed not to want to take the chance."

Rachel just laughed more – something he hadn't thought would be possible – and Eddie watched the light from the car park's streetlights dance across her features. It was good to see her like this, even if it was at his expense.

They approached her car now, and eager not to let the moment end, Eddie taunted her, "Just you wait! One day a parent will take a fancy to you, and I'm just going to stand by and laugh."

Stopping by her car, Rachel turned to face him. "Oh of course you're not," she responded, calming her laughter a little but still smiling radiantly. "Your knight in shining armour side would never let you stand by while I was hounded by another man."

He raised his eyebrows. "Hounded by _another _man? Are you saying I hound you?"

"Only when you want something," Rachel grinned.

Eddie was just enjoying their brief moment of eye contact when Rachel's eyes suddenly darted over his shoulder looking further down the car park.

"What is it?" he asked, starting to turn round.

Rachel's hand on his arm stopped him. "Don't turn around."

The wickedness of her grin gave him a clue as to who she had seen. "Don't tell me she's waiting for me?"

Amusement danced in Rachel's eyes again. "She probably wants to follow you to see if your story checks out."

"This is unbelievable!"

"I think it's sweet."

"Sweet? Rachel, she's stalking me!"

"I don't think it constitutes stalking until she actually follows you," Rachel told him, thankfully adopting a more serious tone now as if she was beginning to see his point of view.

"Which she is going to do as soon as I drive out of here," he argued.

"She probably just wants to see if you just lied to get rid of her… She's a nice young woman, Eddie, she's hardly likely to turn psycho over you."

"We've seen her for what? All of fifteen minutes over the last year? How can we know if she's a nice young woman?"

"Well she's always seemed nice and – "

"They all seem nice at first, Rachel, that's how they lure you in."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Oh for goodness sake, if you're that worried…"

Before Eddie knew what was happening, Rachel had stepped forward and kissed him. Her hand was on the back of his head, holding his face close to hers, as her lips caressed his, sending trembles through his body. Eddie was frozen in place, shock being the emotion predominantly controlling his actions.

That was until Rachel pulled her lips away from his just long enough to say, "You looking surprised by this is not going to convince her." Then her lips were back on his and Eddie's mind caught up. He moved his hands to her hips and returned the kiss, holding her against him as he revelled in the sensation of being allowed to do this.

Rachel's lips were so soft beneath his, and her fingers were so gentle as they played with the hair on the back of his neck, her nails occasionally grazing the skin, sending shockwaves through him. It would be so easy to forget why they were doing this; to lose himself in the moment and release all the feelings he had been keeping concealed with regard to this woman.

Surely she couldn't be oblivious to the attraction between them; to the spark that always glowed whenever they were together, particularly when she let her guard down and would relax with him. But, then again, maybe she was. He would never have initiated a charade like this because he knew he couldn't trust himself to end it there. If she had thought this would be okay, then maybe she didn't share his feelings.

With that thought, Eddie reluctantly pulled away, ending the kiss and their embrace. Rachel looked up at him and for a split second he thought he saw disappointment, before she glanced over his shoulder, and then towards the school gate.

"Looks like it worked," she said with a small smile, "Your stalker has gone."

Eddie looked around to confirm that for himself, and could have sworn Rachel's smile only came back into place as he looked back to her. It gave him hope that maybe she did feel something.

"Let's hope that's the end of it," he said, "Wouldn't want her turning on you now for stealing her man."

Rachel gave a short laugh. "You have a really strange impression of women… And the lengths they would go to to get you!"

"Hey, you just pounced on me in the school car park," he smirked, surprised at how easily she could make him forget that he had been feeling disheartened.

"I hardly pounced," she countered, "And besides, I was saving you from your new fan."

"Ah, that's what they all say," he grinned.

Rachel shook her head whilst laughing again, then moved to get her keys out of her bag. "We should get going. This is our last night of freedom after all."

"Speaking of which," Eddie said, "I still maintain that a residential staff conference is a bad idea."

"And I still maintain that the best time to have raised that concern would have been last year when I put it on the calendar. Not one week before it, and especially not the night before. It's booked now… And it'll be fine. We'll get a lot done on the Assessment for Learning policy, and the staff will have an opportunity to socialise."

"Do you not think this staff does enough socialising? Have you heard the latest rumours from the science department?"

"Eddie, these are grown adults. What they get up to at the conference is their business. We don't have to supervise them."

"But it'll all become our problem on Monday when suchabody won't speak to suchabody else and -"

"And they will still be grown adults then, and they will be reminded of that fact. Lots of schools have had residential conferences, Eddie, and they didn't bring about the end of the world."

"Did lots of schools have Steph Haydock on staff?"

Rachel shot him a look that told him that was out of line, and then said, "We've been through all of this. But if it'll make you feel better, you can be in charge of room allocations. That way you can keep suchabody as far away from suchabody else as possible if you wish."

"Oh ha, ha! Like that would make a difference."

Rachel smiled softly. "Go home and sleep, Eddie. If you're going to spend all tomorrow night worrying about the staff, you're going to need it."

"Okay. I just want you to be aware that I will have no qualms about saying 'I told you so' on Monday morning," he said as he started walking towards his car. "Or on Saturday morning for that matter if half of them don't show for the morning's meeting."

She just smiled at him again and called, "Night night, Eddie," before getting into her car.

Eddie stopped by his car and watched her drive away, offering her a wave as she went.

Yes, they had been through all of his arguments about the staff residential conference before, and even he knew that they were lame. But he also knew the real reason he was worried about it, and it was less to do with what the other staff would get up to, and more to do with what he might be tempted to do. And given that kiss he was feeling even more concerned about his ability to resist temptation.

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews for this fic. I'm glad people are enjoying it, and I apologise for the major delay with this next chapter. I had not expected it would be so long before I posted on this again. I hope you find it worth the wait. Thanks again!

Chapter Two

What Eddie couldn't possibly have known as he stood in the car park watching Rachel drive away, was that she too was left reeling by their kiss. Yes, she had instigated the charade, but she had acted on impulse, she hadn't exactly thought it through.

She had spent the whole night replaying the moment; cursing herself for letting it happen; cursing herself for letting it stop. She had found herself falling for Eddie barely weeks into her first term at Waterloo Road, but she had convinced herself that she had to ignore her feelings. And until last night she had been managing to do that. Now though she was finding it difficult to think about anything else.

When she arrived at school the next morning, there weren't many people in the playground; mainly just the conscientious ones, or those who were going to Breakfast Club. She smiled pleasantly to each one as she passed them, and, despite her mental distraction, she couldn't fail to notice that, although they smiled back, they immediately turned to each other and started giggling. The first couple of times she put it down to the fact that children can be very strange, but when it happened a further four times she began to grow suspicious.

Walking through the front doors, she found herself face to face with Ralph Mellor, though barely had time to register that fact as she was momentarily distracted by a peal of laughter from a nearby group of Year Ten students. Now definitely intrigued, she turned back to the school Governor.

"Good morning, Ralph," she said, trying not to sound as unenthusiastic as she felt. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"My daughter received a disturbing text message this morning," he replied in his usual serious tone, which seemed to hint that everything was Rachel's fault.

"And it's from someone at the school?" Rachel asked, concerned now if they had a cyber-bullying problem on their hands.

"It's not who it's from that concerns me," Ralph said, cryptically, "It's what it says. Perhaps we could discuss this in your office?"

"Of course," Rachel agreed, cursing the fates for bringing her Ralph-related problems so soon in the day.

The walk to the office took them past another group of pupils, this time including Year Eight pupil, Sally James. Whilst the others turned away giggling and whispering as Rachel now expected, Sally blushed bright red, dropped her eyes from Rachel's and then turned her back.

Rachel frowned. That was unusual. Sally was a very quiet member of the school community, never any trouble. Her reaction was as if she thought she had done something wrong, and Rachel very much doubted that could be the case. She made a mental note to speak to Eddie about it, seeing as he had met with Sally's mother yesterday about an incident in which Sally had been bullied. In fact it was Sally's mother that had led to their… encounter on the car park –

Suddenly it all fell into place; the whispering and giggling, and Ralph's early morning visit. Inwardly sighing, Rachel led Ralph into her office and moved behind her desk, needing to exude the role of Head Teacher as much as possible during this conversation.

She took a deep breath, forced a smile and, even though she knew what the answer would be, she asked, "So, what did the message say?"

-----

Eddie arrived at Rachel's office just as Rachel was escorting Ralph Mellor out. She managed to catch his eye to stop him from asking what was going on, and ushered Ralph out as quickly as possible. She asked Joyce to walk him out of school, citing a meeting with Eddie as her reason.

She closed the door behind them and leant against it.

Eddie raised an eyebrow in question and Rachel rolled her eyes and pushed away from the door.

"If there's ever an emergency," she said, "This school has quite the phone tree." She walked into her office and he followed.

"Flick Mellor received a text message this morning to tell her that you and I are having an affair," she explained as she sat down on the sofa under the window.

Eddie's eyes widened. "Well that explains the whispering and giggling."

Rachel nodded. "If it reached Flick, then it reached all of them."

"I meant in the staffroom," Eddie clarified, "I just popped in there. I thought I was getting some funny looks."

"No doubt Tom and Steph heard it from Chlo and Maxine."

"What did you tell Ralph?"

Rachel smiled. "Well I didn't tell him what really happened. The secret of Ms James' advances is safe with me… He asked if I was having an affair with you. So I said no."

"He just asked?" Eddie seemed surprised as he sat down on the other sofa.

"He did. I made sure to ask if he always believed everything Flick was told by other students at school," she smirked, "But I answered the question."

"And did he believe you?"

Rachel shrugged. "He seemed to. And I assured him that the students will have moved on to another topic of gossip by the end of the day… And told him I look forward to seeing him in the morning to talk about whatever that may be."

Eddie's eyes sparkled with amusement as he shook his head. "You just love winding him up."

Rachel grinned. "He's constantly trying to prove I'm incompetent, I should at least be allowed a little fun while he does it."

Eddie laughed and Rachel cursed her memory, for about the thousandth time that morning, for reminding her what happened last night. She was determined not to think about it, but so far the record time she had managed was about three consecutive minutes. She didn't even know how she had made it through the rest of their conversation last night when all she had actually wanted to do was lean forward and kiss him again.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she realised Eddie was looking at her as if wondering what she was thinking.

"We should go do the morning briefing," she said, standing up.

Eddie stood at the same time, bringing them both into the same space, mere centimetres between them. Instantly Rachel's heart skipped a beat and then began fluttering rapidly. Their eyes met and Rachel prayed that what was going on inside her was not showing in her face. She had to get some control over this.

"What do we tell them?" Eddie asked, but Rachel only caught the end of the sentence, concentrating as she was on regaining some sort of composure.

"Huh?" Oh yes, perfect. That definitely wouldn't give away her reaction to his proximity.

"The staff. What do we say to them about the rumour?" Eddie clarified, his eyes narrowed slightly, obviously curious about her odd behaviour.

"Oh, I don't think we need to tell them anything. If they have the audacity to ask, then we'll tell the truth."

Eddie's eyes widened in momentary panic and Rachel couldn't help but smile.

"Not the truth about Ms James, Eddie…"

His face relaxed.

"… The truth about us. There's nothing going on," she shrugged, ignoring the rush of warmth that swept her as she relived their kiss once more, "So we've no need to lie." She tried to take no notice of the part of her brain telling her that that, in itself, was a lie, but, realising she needed to escape his personal space quickly, she stepped away. "Let's go," she smiled.

They didn't speak much on the way to the staff room – much to Rachel's relief! Her mind was far too occupied with making sure her thoughts weren't causing her to blush or appear flustered. All she needed on top of the rumours was for her to look guilty. Certain members of staff would immediately know there was some truth to what they had heard.

A hush fell over the staff as she and Eddie entered. She told herself that happened every day, but the paranoid side of her insisted it had happened a lot faster than usual.

"Good morning," she said, forcing confident brightness into her voice. "I don't have many messages this morning, just a reminder that tonight is the staff conference. Please try to leave here as soon as possible after the bell, to avoid traffic. The first meeting is at five. Just a short one 'til six, and then you've a couple of hours to yourselves before dinner at eight. Now, Bob and Leanna, I have it noted that neither of you will be staying over night, everyone else, Eddie will be in charge of room allocation…" Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him look at her as she said that. "… Please see him if you have any questions or problems. That's it. Have a good day everyone."

Rachel turned to leave, but didn't miss Steph's whispered, "I wonder who'll have to share a room," and she didn't need to see Steph to know exactly where her smirk was directed.

Turning back, smile in place, Rachel calmly said, "Oh no one will need to share, Steph. Don't worry. There's a room each for everyone."

With that Rachel did leave the staff room, not tempting fate by hanging around long enough for someone to notice her distracted state.

She had taken only three steps along the corridor when Eddie's voice came from behind her. "You were serious about the room allocation thing?" he asked, and she stopped and turned to look at him.

She hadn't been serious last night, and in truth she wasn't entirely serious in the staff room either; she had given in to the impulse to tease Eddie – another sign that she was doing very badly at pushing her feelings back to where she used to keep them.

"Were you not serious about your concerns?" she asked him, resisting the traitorous urge to smirk flirtatiously.

He appeared to hesitate before answering, and Rachel regarded him with a curious frown.

"Well… partly," he admitted.

Rachel allowed an amused smile to surface on her face as worry surfaced on Eddie's.

"Relax, Eddie. I don't expect you to put a lot of thought into it. I just need a list of room numbers with staff names next to them… It would save me a job," she told him, knowing full well that Joyce would willingly have done that for her, but to admit that would make him question why she had told the staff that he was in charge.

"Oh it won't be that simple now, Rachel. They'll be tracking me down all day to give me their requests."

Rachel's frown was amused this time. "You really think they're that bothered which room they have?"

"Oh yeah. It'll be 'Make sure my room's closest to the bar so I won't have to stumble too far at the end of the night'…"

Rachel could actually hear hints of Steph's accent in Eddie's "quote".

"… and 'Don't put me in a room adjoining Steph's! She could snore for England!'"

Rachel laughed at Eddie's overactive imagination. "See, clearly you have a better idea than I do about how important this is. I would have just gone alphabetically."

"I told you, Rachel," Eddie said in all seriousness, "you will come to regret making this conference residential."

For a brief moment, Rachel allowed herself to wonder if Eddie's concern over the conference was rooted in the same thing as her apprehension; if, perhaps, he felt he couldn't trust himself to be with her. But then she reprimanded herself for her absurd wishful thinking.

"I'm sure it will all be fine, Eddie," she assured him, the churning in her stomach reminding her she needed to assure herself.

Eddie started to lean towards her, as if to speak to her conspiratorially, and then seemed to reconsider, stopping. Once more Rachel wondered if his behaviour really was as awkward as it seemed, or if she was just imagining it; willing last night to have had the same effect on him as it continued to have on her.

"We'll see," he said, snapping her out of her thoughts again.

He moved away now, and, unable to think of a suitable response to that, she watched him go.

Pupils passed her on the corridor, but she barely acknowledged them. She had to get her feelings under control or else Eddie would be right: She would end up regretting the staff conference… She just wasn't sure which she would regret more: letting her guard down and seeing what would happen; or not doing so.

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"You're hiding."

Rachel looked up at the accusation; finding Eddie standing in the doorway of her office with a smirk on his face and a piece of paper in his hand.

"I'm busy," she defended herself, a smile creeping across her lips.

"Oh how convenient," he retorted, walking into the room, "I'm out there on the corridors and in the classrooms dealing with the snickering and giggling and you're hiding in here."

"I'm doing paperwork that I won't have time to do later," she explained, sitting back in her chair and looking up at him.

"Well, you believe that if you want to."

"If I'd been hiding, the door would have been closed and I probably wouldn't have been in an office with my name on it."

"I accused you of hiding, I didn't say you were good at it," Eddie grinned.

Rachel couldn't help but smile back; it seemed to come naturally to her to banter like this with Eddie. No amount of telling herself that she had to stop flirting, and stop thinking about the kiss, was making a difference. The logical part of her brain was saying one thing, but she was doing something else.

"Need I remind you that all this was caused by me helping you out?... I think the least you can do is deal with the repercussions."

"It probably would have been better being stalked by Ms James!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Wow, thanks," Rachel muttered, feigning taking offence to his comment.

"No. No, I mean, every child – and adult! – I see gives me this knowing look. It's like being stalked by six hundred people! They all know my business."

Fighting the urge to laugh at Eddie's melodrama, Rachel pointed out, "They all _think_ they know your business."

"Yes, some things they think they know aren't true, Rachel, but they know we kissed in the car park last night."

"They don't know that's true, though," Rachel rationalised.

"Yes, but I know it's true!"

Rachel's initial reaction was to ask him why that was a problem; to find out if the knowledge of what happened between them was hounding him, as it was her. She managed to catch the words before they came out though.

"Have you told anyone that it's true?" she asked instead.

"No, of course not," Eddie replied.

"Then they still only think they know. It's a rumour. The kids will be bored of it by Monday, and the staff - … Well, they'll have all the gossip from the staff conference to keep them going." She knew there was an evil twinkle in her eyes as she played on his concerns about the conference.

"That's not very comforting," he protested.

"Why not? Do you intend to be the subject of said gossip?"

Those words were out before she even realised what she was going to say. Her question seemed to still the air around them, as if the world had stopped – either through shock at her stupidity or with anticipation for his response. For Rachel, her stillness was caused by both.

The teasing smile that had been on her face when she had spoken gradually fell as she just sat and looked at Eddie. Her heart beat loudly, counting the time spent in this silence; and she tried to read the expression on Eddie's face. It was a fruitless endeavour, though; she couldn't tell how he was going to respond, nor could she tell what he had interpreted her words to mean. It was only while she had been sitting waiting that she had realised he may think they were words of jealousy; envious of whoever it was he intended to become the topic of gossip with. And though this had been far from the truth when she had spoken, she felt her stomach churn now at the thought of him with someone else.

She was about to speak; to say anything to end the silence, when Eddie said, "I think starring in one rumour's enough for this week, don't you?"

Rachel smiled with relief that she hadn't created an awkward situation between them, and also that she hadn't led them into a conversation she didn't know how to have. But, behind her smile, disappointment niggled at her. She ignored it.

"I agree," she told him. "Speaking of the conference," she took the opportunity to change the subject quickly, "Do you have that list of rooms?"

Eddie was looking at her curiously again, but his expression shifted to neutral as he answered her questions. "Yes, I do. Actually, that's why I'm here." He handed her the piece of paper she had forgotten he had in his hand.

"Ah, thank you… Is suchabody a suitable distance from suchabody else?" she smirked, and it did not escape her notice how easily she had slipped back to teasing him. She looked down at the list, but realised she couldn't remember where the rooms were located in relation to each other anyway. "Did you get many specific requests from staff?" she asked him.

"A few," he said, "Mainly to do with Steph's snoring though."

The bell rang as Rachel laughed and put the paper down on top of the pile of files she would be taking to the conference. "Well, one hour to go. Then the whole ordeal will be over before you know it."

"You're really enjoying the fact that I'm worried about tonight aren't you?"

She smiled innocently and stood up. "I just like winding you up… Come on, I'm going to brave the corridors and classrooms," she said, walking round her desk.

"I'll enjoy winding you up next week after I'm proved right," Eddie commented as he followed her towards the open door.

She stopped at the threshold and faced him. "Maybe we need one of those pacts. What happens at conference stays at conference," she joked.

It was the amused frown on Eddie's forehead that made her realise how that had sounded.

"Not… us," she backtracked, "The staff, I mean. That way nobody winds anybody up, and next week will run just as smoothly as any other."

Eddie didn't say anything. He just pursed his lips and nodded.

"Okay," she said, "Classrooms and corridors."

She rolled her eyes at herself as soon as she had her back to Eddie. This was ridiculous. Prior to last night she had never found it so difficult to have a conversation with him. One kiss and suddenly the entire dynamic of their relationship had shifted.

They stepped out of the office into the hustle and bustle of the lesson changeover, and the amused, knowing looks Eddie had complained about. Rachel smiled pleasantly at anyone who passed her; her head teacher mask firmly in place so that she wouldn't give away anything about what was really going on. Perhaps the corridors and classrooms were the safest place for her. Here she had to be in control, and there was no risk of her making any more stupid comments to Eddie.

Bolton and Janeece were the last ones to leave the corridor, and they walked past and then started whispering to each other. Rachel jumped slightly when Eddie's voice came from right beside her ear. "I told you," he whispered.

She turned her head to look at him and - ignoring the fact that she liked it when he leaned close to her; and that she liked it when he whispered to her; and that she liked the look that she could see in his eyes now - she raised an eyebrow and said, "I don't think this would do anything for quashing the rumours."

Eddie's eyes flitted around, seeming to take in their position, then he dropped back. "See, I shouldn't have to be paranoid about standing too close to you, or worry about what I say to you."

Rachel smiled because she knew Eddie would expect her to be amused by his frustration, but inside she was piecing it together with other things he had said and done, and concluding that he did seem to be having the same reaction to last night as she was. She didn't quite feel ready to decide what to do about that though.

So, she decided to carry on their walk round the school, putting that wall back up. She stepped away from him, saying, "Oh, Eddie, I told you – "

"Yes, they'll all have forgotten about it by Monday," he interrupted, following her.

"Exactly," she said to him. 'But I won't,' she added to herself, and she could have sworn she heard Eddie whisper the same thing behind her.

TBC…


End file.
